Food news antipasto

From baking to operating a cookery school to writing several bestselling cookbooks, John Whaite is living his best life. He will soon add another accomplishment to his impressive career: the 2012 Great British Bake Off champion is slated to compete in Strictly Come Dancing’s first all-male partnership. Whaite said: “I’m so grateful, excited, and nervous to be joining the Strictly 2021 family. I’ve been wearing sequins and jazzy attire since I was three years old and can’t wait to hurl myself, full throttle, around the most glamorous dance floor on earth.”

Fans of the Pioneer Woman will soon have a new program to watch – Ree Drummond is starring in Food Network’s first-ever Christmas movie. This will be Drummond’s first acting role. The title of the film is Candy Coated Christmas, and according to Variety magazine, the plot revolves around a woman who goes back to her mother’s hometown after she experiences a career setback and operates a small bakery and learns about the locals. It’s likely that one of those locals will be a dreamy love interest. The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Super Easy!, Ree’s latest book, will be released in October.

Although we think Jenny does a masterful job of keeping us informed about the best new cookbook releases, in the interests of fairness we occasionally bring you other viewpoints. This time we are turning to Epicurious, which has assembled a list of the best cookbooks coming out this autumn. They highlight 63 books that caught their attention, with short blurbs about each. (We do ask that if you decide to buy any of the books from a major online retailer, that you please use the Buy Book option from the EYB Library instead of Epicurious’ links – we use any affiliate funds we receive to upgrade our services. And of course we encourage everyone to support their local independent cookbook stores or booksellers.)

After Washington Post columnist Gene Weingarten penned an article that disparaged Indian cuisine, titled “You can’t make me eat these foods,” he received plenty of pushback. Among those who took umbrage at Weingarten’s offensive description was Padma Lakshmi, who wrote about her feelings in an op-ed piece also published in the Post. She explained why the column was hurtful to Indians and those in the Indian diaspora, saying that the description of Indian food was “unintentional anti-humor, regurgitating an unimaginative, racist joke with no punchline.”

Few food critics can entertain and educate as well as The Guardian’s Jay Rayner. In his most recent column, Rayner dispenses the lessons he has learned as a long-time restaurant critic. Noting that he did not intend to become a restaurant reviewer for life, he says that in this career path he “found everything [he] needed is there in what we eat.” Recounting the meals his mother prepared for friends and relatives, Rayner recalls that “I understood that this life of the table mattered.”